Thinking Greek

My friend L's dad drove us into work on Monday. On the way, we talked about how using the CSA share was going. I said that it was hard to figure out ways to use all of the vegetables - clearly, P and I don't normally eat this much of them. L and her dad pointed out that in North American culture, there isn't much honoring of the vegetable on its own. Rather, it's a side dish, and if the vegetable is served plain, it's usually the least delicious thing on the plate. Greek food, however, showcases the vegetables. Possibly due to the frequent fast days required in the Greek Orthodox calendar, the Greeks have found delicious ways to make meals without meat. What it ultimately means is that they clearly know what to do with a vegetable - to make it the meal instead of the sad side portion of the meal.

I decided to take some inspiration from this and put the vegetables on center stage this week. As with other times P is away, I'm more tolerant of failure in the kitchen than when I'm feeding someone other than me. To start, tonight's dinner was a Greek (sort of) salad with toasted pita - perfect for a summer evening when it's really too hot to do any serious cooking. This first try was definitely not a failure!

Unfortunately, there's no photo - my resident photographer is away, and I was too hungry to bother.

Greek (sort of) salad
serves 1 as dinner; 2 for a substantive side dish

1 tomato
1/2 green pepper
1/2 cucumber
1/3 cup Kalamata olives
1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled
1/2 tsp fresh oregano leaves
2 tsp olive oil
1 tsp balsamic vinegar

Cut up the tomato, pepper, and cucumber into bite-sized pieces. Mix in bowl with the other ingredients. Serve with toasted pita.

This week's haul

This week's box is full of things I'm very excited to use:

- 7 ears of corn
- 3 tomatoes
- a head of cauliflower
- a head of lettuce
- a cucumber
- 2 carrots

I'm really looking forward to the corn and tomatoes; I think those are the vegetables that evoke summer to me the most. Even if the weather isn't super summery, the food in my kitchen can be!

Wednesday dinner

Today's dinner did not go as planned - yes, we ate pork tenderloin, but we did not have the radishes with it. After some thought, I figured they'd last longer than the other, more delicate vegetables, and could therefore wait to be used until later in the week. (We'll see if I'm right in a few days.) So tonight the menu was:

Ginger-garlic pork tenderloin
P's couscous salad
Roasted asparagus

Because today I wasn't feeling all that energetic, both the pork tenderloin and couscous salad are of P's creation - I was his sous chef today, preparing the asparagus for roasting and chopping the vegetables for the salad. The result was a summery mix of textures and tastes that I could easily see eating too much of. This salad is great to bring for next-day lunches, since it's everything in one package, and is fine cold or at room temperature (or even hot, if you're so inclined). The couscous salad recipe is modified from recipes found who-knows-where.

For the couscous:
2 1/3 cups homemade chicken broth
1 1/3 cups whole wheat couscous
2 tsp ground cumin
1 3/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp cayenne
For the dressing:
juice and zest of 1/2 large orange (approx. 4 tbsp of juice)
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
Add-ins:
1/3 cup goat cheese, broken into pieces
3 medium-sized tomatoes
3/4 of a large cucumber (approx. the same volume as the tomatoes)
3 large green onions, white and green parts, sliced thinly crosswise
1 19 oz (540 mL) can of chickpeas, rinsed
1 tbsp capers, rinsed
1 tbsp mint, chiffonaded

Boil the chicken broth. Mix couscous and spices in large heat-safe bowl. Whisk together orange juice, zest, oil, salt, and pepper. When chicken broth is boiling, add to bowl with couscous and cover with plastic wrap until it has soaked up all of the liquid. (Follow the directions on the package for proportions of liquid to couscous.) Fluff with a fork. Add cheese first, then vegetables, chickpeas, capers, mint, and dressing; mix. Eat, or let sit in the refrigerator for a while before eating.

The roasted asparagus was simple: drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper, and roast at 450 degrees F until tender. This was done while the pork was resting - it really only takes a few minutes.